Duff doing it the Sean Dyche way - Times

[IAmAClaret]

Michael Duff brings new hope by doing it the Sean Dyche way at Cheltenham - The Times

Cheltenham Town fans were welcomed back with a thrilling performance at the Jonny Rocks Stadium on Saturday where, after nine long months away, and 2020’s myriad trials, optimism abounds. And so it should after this 5-3 win against third-placed Exeter City extended the best start to a Football League season in the Gloucestershire club’s history and kept Michael Duff’s expertly marshalled side hot on the heels of Sky Bet League Two leaders, Newport County.

The former Burnley captain is fast becoming one of the most highly-regarded young coaches in the lower leagues and, after last season’s curtailment, Duff is determined to use Cheltenham’s bruising defeat against Northampton Town in the play-off semi-final as “fuel” to return to League One for the first time in 12 years. “We’ve got a good group of players who are honest enough to go, ‘Yep, we messed that up; how can we rectify it? By hard work, and remembering it,’ and that’s what they’ve done,” Duff says.

Duff arrived in September 2018, after two years working at close quarters with Sean Dyche as coach of Burnley Under-23, with plans, he admits, to “Burnley-fy the place”. But a chastening ten- game wait for a league win prompted a pivotal formation change and a swift re-evaluation. “I hadn’t won a game, we had Arsenal in the Checkatrade [Trophy] and I was thinking: ‘That’s the last game you want, a load of 18-year-olds turning up who could make you feel stupid,’ ” he says. “So we gave 3-5-2 a go, nothing to lose, and we won 6-2. We drew with Mansfield [Town] in the next game, then beat Notts County 3-0. Dropping Ben Tozer from midfield into the middle of the back three, with his ability on the ball, sort of got us playing.

“One reason why I came to this club was I thought I’d be given a chance. They’re not historically a sacking club. But you go ten games without a win at a lot of clubs, you don’t get to the tenth.”

Patience, however, has been rewarded and since “landing” upon that system Cheltenham have become one of the most well-drilled teams in League Two. Players are now recruited to fit the system. Like Matty Blair, for example, a 31-year-old right wing back who joined from Doncaster Rovers in the summer, and was outstanding on Saturday. Liam Sercombe, who joined from Bristol Rovers and scored two against his former club, was another canny acquisition but, like all recruits, must fit into a mid-table budget.

Cheltenham are pragmatists: they build play from the back, switch the ball to their wing backs quickly, but are not afraid to mix their play. They utilise Tozer’s gargantuan throw-in, from which defender William Boyle scored the fifth on Saturday. They press doggedly but also defend resolutely when necessary. In short, they are well-coached and Tozer, the captain, believes Duff is destined for a bigger things. Tozer leads a “speak-up” session every Monday with the players — a concept taken from a day spent with the former marines Ben Williams and Antony Thompson — inviting discussion about the weekend’s performance.

Duff played almost 250 games for Cheltenham during the club’s rise from the Southern League to League One in 2002 under Steve Cotterill, who signed him for Burnley and remains a major influence. In 12 years at Turf Moor, Duff won three promotions to the Premier League but, having climbed England’s top eight leagues in ascending order as a player, had no qualms about beginning his management career at the bottom of the ladder.

Dyche’s influence, meanwhile, can be seen in the Burnley manager’s notorious “Gaffer’s Day” — two hours of running, no footballs in sight — which is now a fixture of Cheltenham’s pre-season. “In terms of mentality, the way we work, it’s very much Burnley,” Duff says. Such as? “Just trying to de-bulls**t football. Sometimes players forget . . . they get agents, a nice car, they’re picking up half-decent dough, and all of a sudden they’ve forgotten the eight-year-old kid who just wanted to be a footballer. It’s just trying to simplify it: that’s what he’s the best at, in my opinion, Dychey. I learnt loads from him.

“But from the playing side, it’s probably more Steve Cotterill. I pick his brains more on the intricacies of the system. Because it’s a difficult system to play. But if you do it properly, at this level, it’s hard to play against. This is still League Two though. I like two centre forwards on the pitch. For all you want to play, you can still boot it down the pitch, flick it on, and run.”


Interesting to hear the influence both Dyche and Cotterill continue to have on Duff. Certainly going well for him at Cheltenham, and the comments on the article from Cheltenham fans all seem to be enjoying it, but resigned that they'll lose him in a year or two.

[Vino blanco]

Thanks for that iaac, I enjoyed the read.

[jojomk1]

"They use a 3-5-2 system and like to build play from the back utilising their wing backs"

[Inchy]

Pleased that Duff is doing well, he’s a nice bloke.

Hopefully if he continues his development he would be a natural replacement for Dyche when that day comes

[dibraidio]

Last season he had Luke Varney who scored 21 goals. He moved on a free to Burton in the summer. He had Ryan Broom who scored 10 but moved on to Peterborough. Not easy to replace 30 goals without spending any money but he's brought in 34 year old Andy Williams who's scored 6 so far but they've spread the goals throughout the team. Unbeaten in 8.

Really pleased it's going well for him I hope they manage to stay in that top 3.

[bf2k]

"They use a 3-5-2 system and like to build play from the back utilising their wing backs"

To be fair we have the players to do this as well. In fact I’d say the mix of players we have are probably better suited to that formation.

Glad to see Duff doing well though.

[Quickenthetempo]

Morals of Dyche but goes to Cotterill for advice on football style.
No mention for Coyle, Laws or Howe?

[gtclaret]

Always look for their results and Fleetwood, very pleased for him

[ClaretTony]

Morals of Dyche but goes to Cotterill for advice on football style.
No mention for Coyle, Laws or Howe?

At a Q&A night for his testimonial he gave us sort of one liners about the managers he played for at Burnley

Cotterill - sometimes too intense but owe everything to him
Coyle - no idea how we got promoted, so unprofessional
Laws - never given a chance by the players
Howe - never spoke to me
Dyche - modern manager with old fashioned values

Excellent article by the way, really pleased he's doing well now.

[keith1879]

At a Q&A night for his testimonial he gave us sort of one liners about the managers he played for at Burnley

Cotterill - sometimes too intense but owe everything to him
Coyle - no idea how we got promoted, so unprofessional
Laws - never given a chance by the players
Howe - never spoke to me
Dyche - modern manager with old fashioned values

Excellent article by the way, really pleased he's doing well now.

If that's even mainly true about Eddie Howe it's rather damning (surely not literally true).

Got a feeling that I have seen this exchange before......

[wilks_bfc]

If that's even mainly true about Eddie Howe it's rather damning (surely not literally true).

Got a feeling that I have seen this exchange before......

I’ve seen a few of the senior players say that before about Howe. Seems he had a much better relationship with players younger than him

[criminalclaret]

Howe is only a year older than Duff. I'd say in any place where the seniors struggle to see that person as an authority rather than a peer must prove problematic.

In football terms, some of those players would have worked under much more accomplished managers than Howe, where as the younger players he would have had the chance to make an impact in their careers.

Probably no different to other workplace really.

[ClaretTony]

If that's even mainly true about Eddie Howe it's rather damning (surely not literally true).

Got a feeling that I have seen this exchange before......

That’s what he said and I certainly know of another senior player who never had a conversation with him although he wasn’t there as long as Duff.

[keith1879]

That’s what he said and I certainly know of another senior player who never had a conversation with him although he wasn’t there as long as Duff.

That alone has reduced my opinion of Howe significantly.
Meanwhile I am delighted for Michael Duff....it is always easy to see a popular player move into management and wish him well but in this case he seems to be actually doing the business with some style and success.

[Dyched]

Howe is only a year older than Duff. I'd say in any place where the seniors struggle to see that person as an authority rather than a peer must prove problematic.

In football terms, some of those players would have worked under much more accomplished managers than Howe, where as the younger players he would have had the chance to make an impact in their careers.

Probably no different to other workplace really.

Especially when Howe cleared out the older lot who basically took the **** after Coyle left until Howe came in.

[ClaretTony]

Especially when Howe cleared out the older lot who basically took the **** after Coyle left until Howe came in.

And Duff was not one of them

[Dyched]

And Duff was not one of them

I was trying to say that. To me Howe not talking to Duff might have simply been because he respected him. He didn’t need telling every 5 minutes what to do or not to do. It speaks volumes of both of them imho. Duff being the model pro and Howe trusting him not undermine him and in his decisions.

[ClaretTony]

I was trying to say that. To me Howe not talking to Duff might have simply been because he respected him. He didn’t need telling every 5 minutes what to do or not to do. It speaks volumes of both of them imho. Duff being the model pro and Howe trusting him not undermine him and in his decisions.

Duff wasn't saying it respectfully

[Inchy]

It’s seems strange that any manager, but particularly a younger manager, wouldn’t pull the senior respected pros like Duff into his office on arrival to get them on side. To just ignore him would appear to add to the theory that he couldn’t work with pros a similar age to himself

[ksrclaret]

As if he never spoke to him. I’d say it’s an impossibility that Howe managed Duff for nearly 2 years, played him frequently, yet never spoke to him.

[taio]

Seems Duff has changed his view of Howe through the passage of time. Whilst he clearly holds Dyche in the highest regard it sounds like he certainly respects Howe.

Eddie Howe was here tonight. Have you had a chat with him?

I’ve just been chatting with him for five minutes and he was very complimentary. He said we looked really good. He said he’s been keeping an eye on my career from afar. He said I have to do it the hard way, which is the same way he did it. But he is a manager known for the way his team plays. He was complimentary about the defensive record last year. He is a good guy, Eddie. He knows Wade really well and they played together at Bournemouth and came through at Bournemouth together. For someone at that level to come and watch the game be complimentary, you’ll take that credit, but don’t rest on your laurels. We’ve had one good performance and got beaten ultimately. There is no getting away from the fact of that as well. There is detail within the performance we need to touch up on, same as every game really.

Everyone knows about the Steve Cotterill and Sean Dyche influence on your career. Is Eddie Howe someone you have spoken too much since starting in management?

I’ve not spoken to him much, no. I learned quite a bit from him when he first came in. He’s only a month older than me, Eddie. It’s a strange one because he came in as a young manager and I was an old player. It was a little bit different to start with in terms of him trusting my body because sometimes he thought I felt as bad as he did because he retired young and I didn’t feel bad. But some of his sessions, the way he organised and the detail with his analysis, things like that I definitely took. I don’t speak to him a lot, but he influenced me and all managers do. Eddie was really detailed in his coaching and I definitely pinched a few sessions off him as well.


“They are totally different personalities, Eddie is more of a coach whereas Dychey is probably the best mentality coach in the business. Eddie had it tough at Burnley, he’s only a month older than me and walked into an old dressing room, there must’ve been 10 players 30+, all the same age or older than him. Now I’m on the other side of it I know was probably really tough. It probably didn't quite work but I did learn a lot from him, a lot of his coaching sessions were great and the detail he used to go into was second to none.”